Zoo's Herpes Outbreak Gets the New York Times Treatment

Over the weekend, the nation's paper of record decided that a bit of St. Louis news was fit to print.

Former Riverfront Times staff writer Malcolm Gay penned a story for Saturday's edition of the New York Times about the mysterious herpes outbreak currently affecting two Asian elephants at the Saint Louis Zoo.

Check it:

Researchers
say the disease, elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, has killed one
of five Asian elephant calves born in North American zoos since 2000.
It accounts for more than half of all deaths of juvenile elephants in
North America, and researchers, working with available tissue samples,
estimate that it has killed some 24 elephants since 1983.

Still,
the researchers know little about the disease, including how it is
transmitted. Nor can they say whether it will remain dormant after its
initial assault only to re-emerge, like some herpes viruses in humans.

And this section too:

The
St. Louis case is shaping up as a trove of information. Jade's symptoms
have largely subsided, Ms. Fischer said, and she appears to be
recovering. Blood tests on the zoo's seven other elephants revealed
that another calf, Maliha, carried a very low level of the virus, and
researchers say they believe the antiviral drugs she is receiving have
stopped its progression.